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WHEN WE EMERGED FROM THE showers, clean and sated, with our hair still dripping wet, the group had already managed to remove four seats from the back of the bus. Supplies were being brought out in boxes and on a dolly the group found at the school. I was told that it would take another hour or two to remove the four more seats and then to fill the bus so that we could leave. I kept myself busy by scouting the rest of the school for anything that we could use.
I didn’t find much of anything that I thought we could use even though I walked through classrooms, offices, and the gymnasium. I did find a snack machine in the gym and considered shooting it to get the candy out. I was pretty sure that would have been a stupid idea though. If only Ghost were here to pick the lock, I thought. I took my anger out on the machine, punching it until I tired myself out and left smears of blood along the front of it. When I was ready and had myself under better control an hour had passed. I decided to head back and join the rest of the group. They were probably close to being ready to go.
I was watching the ground as I walked when heard something that made me stop in my tracks. The sound of metal being crushed and … a gunshot. My first instinct was to run toward the sound and to see what was going on so I could help the group, but then I heard the shouting. I pulled my rifle off of my back and ran behind a huge cement pillar that blocked me from the view of the bus area.
“You stupid son of a …” I heard shouting again and then another shot. With my heart pounding, I knelt down and slowly peeked from behind the pillar that I was hiding behind. An armed group of about eighteen men and women had the rest of my group at gun point, their huge trucks had torn down the back gates of the school. I scanned the group and found Jude alive and … angry as hell. Manuel was also on his knees, his hands behind his head, as the man who appeared to be the leader of the group shouted and asked a bunch of questions. I took a moment to breathe and to try and figure out what I could do to get us out of the situation without losing more people or having to kill the living.
I glanced back around the pillar and searched the group that had broken into the school. I quickly realized that only a couple of them were military or had probably ever used a gun before the outbreak. Several of them couldn’t have been older than fifteen or sixteen. Shit. I couldn’t kill a bunch of kids. I started thinking through all the possible ways I could get us out of the mess we were in when the decision was taken out of my hands. Someone screamed and a few shots sounded, echoing in the area, loudly ringing the proverbial dinner bell. I cursed beneath my breath and stood up quickly. I raised my gun, pointing it at the head of the guy who had been doing the talking. No one even noticed me at first … the morons had been making too much noise and had shattered an opening in our fence, letting dozens of the undead shuffle into the school yard.
“Hey, Jackass!” I shouted over the melee. Jude swung his gaze to me just as the man with hair pulled back into a greasy pony tail and a goatee did. I held up my left hand in hope that he would see that I really didn’t want to mean them any harm, but my scope remained trained on his head. His gun turned in my direction as he shouted at me.
“Stop fucking moving right now!” I stopped and clenched my jaw.
“How did you survive this long?” I asked loudly. His eyes narrowed. “I mean, how fucking stupid can you be?” I continued, fully aware he could pull the trigger at any moment, or maybe one of his teenage soldier’s shaking fingers could slip and I’d be a goner. “You not only let the zombies in, but you even ring the fucking dinner bell for them? Bravo!” I said with a sneer.
“You better watch you smartass mouth, bitch!” he shouted, his face turning a very unattractive shade of red. Bullets were flying behind me, and several of his soldiers were trying to keep the zombies from ruining his little raid, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before we were overrun. And then we would all be dead. Without moving my gun, I jerked my head at the petite woman between me and the goatee dude.
“You okay with him killing a bunch of survivors just to take their supplies?” Her face was full of doubt as she glanced between me, him, and our group on their knees.
“He didn’t say we were going to kill anyone. We just need the supplies,” she said, indecision coloring her voice. She searched his face and I hoped she saw what I saw. He was planning on killing everyone. Even if we gave him our supplies … we were all dead to him.
“Shut your mouth, Nina,” he practically growled. Nina took a step back. He had followers because he’d probably helped them survive, but it was clear he abused the power he’d taken. None of them were following him because of his sterling personality and morals.
“I don’t want to have to kill you, but I will,” I said loudly, my eyes narrowing in on the guy. He laughed loudly one time, his gun moving away from me for just a second and giving me the exact opening I needed. My bullet entered right between his eyes. When he dropped to the pavement, there was a moment of stunned silence as I ran over to his body and turned quickly, training my gun on Nina. Her mouth was hanging open and she had already lowered her gun.
“I didn’t see that coming,” she said after a pause.
“We don’t have to fight each other,” I shouted out into the crowd, secretly terrified to see so many zombies now pouring through the gates. “We’ll be glad to take all of you with us. We have supplies and shelter.” I took a zombie out that had come within two feet of Nina and then lowered my rifle to jerk my knife from its sheath. Her eyes met mine. They were tired eyes, tired of seeing all the crap we had all been through. Nina shrugged and nodded over to the body on the ground.
“I never like that asshole anyway,” she said as she smiled at me. I smiled back and turned to Jude and winked.
“You guys might want to get your weapons. Shit’s about to get real up in here,” I said. They jumped up and immediately began running to help the other’s fight back the undead. Manuel closed the door to the bus before joining everyone else. We fought hard, we fought for those who had died trying to help the group. But, we were fighting a losing battle. Thirty minutes into the fighting, Jude found my gaze, his face resigned. By shooting his gun and knocking down the gates, the man I’d killed had summoned an entire herd of zombies earlier than their normal routine. We were swarmed. Our only hope was to find a place to hole up and wait out the herd, hoping they’d stick to their routine and move on through the area later. Several young people from the group had already fallen and I was so sick of seeing people die.
“Melody!” Jude shouted over the noise to get my attention. “The cafeteria freezer!” I nodded and ran over to Manuel. He whistled, a sharp ear-piercing sound, to get everyone’s attention. I caught Nina’s eye and made a motion for her to round up her group and follow us into the school. Pretty soon all of us were making a run for it down the abandoned hallways of the high school. I was surprised when I reached the cafeteria doors to see the majority of our group and Nina’s right behind me. When Jude brought up the rear, Manuel began barking orders for everyone to move tables and chairs up against the doors and windows.
“Is that everyone?” Jude asked between breaths. “Is everyone accounted for?” he snapped. Nina nodded, her eyes raking over what was left of her group. Besides her, only a dozen dirty and hurt people remained.
“What about Mike?” Manuel shouted over the noise. Jude shook his head, a frown between his brows. Manuel cursed and then turned to shout at people. We were down to eight people ourselves. About that time a zombie ran itself into the window that faced the courtyard in front of the cafeteria. Several more immediately joined them. It would just be a matter of time before so many showed up that they broke the glass to get in.
“Let’s go everyone … let’s get to the back storage room where the walk-in freezer is,” Jude announced.
“That’s your plan? To go and hide in the freezer?” A young girls with short, spikey black hair asked, her eyes wide in disbelief.
“As a matter of fact it is,” Jude snapped, his eye
s daring anyone to cross him.
“If you all had paid better attention to the zombies and the way they were acting around here, maybe you’d notice how they are moving herd-like,” I said. “We figured it out in the first few hours of coming into the area. It’s our best bet. We wait until the herd, hopefully, moves on after the sun goes down and the rest of the undead masses move through this neighborhood. And then we make a run for the bus and get the fuck out of here.”
“Any other questions?” Jude asked sharply. No one said anything, but the sounds coming from the zombies were growing more desperate by the second, and I was sure the glass would be breaking sooner rather than later. “Good, let’s go.”
We all ran to the back room, shining our flashlights as we went. When we got to the freezer and Jude opened it, the smell of two year old rotting food welcomed us. Nina began shaking her head.
“I get claustrophobic,” she said softly. I looked inside the freezer and had a moment of panic myself. It was a huge freezer, but with twenty people jammed into it for god-only-knows how long, it wasn’t something I was looking forward to. Manuel shocked the hell out of me and grabbed Nina by the hand for a second.
“We’ll get through this together. All of us. Just like we all have survived everything since the beginning, well survive this too.” Nina gulped and nodded her head as Manuel and Jude entered first and jerked two shelves out of the freezer and threw them into the storage room. They made quick work of shoving all the rotten food containers out into the storage room … and not a moment too soon. I heard a loud cracking sound as everyone froze in place, not making a sound, and then I heard the gurgles of the zombies who were filling the cafeteria. They had arrived.
“Inside, everyone. Quickly.” We all obeyed immediately and when we were all inside, we shut the door behind us and bolted it from the inside. Manuel turned his flashlight on and shone it around the room. We might have had enough room on the floor for all of us to sit. Might. And no telling how long we were going to be stuck in the freezer. I just prayed our theory would be correct and the zombies would move on when the herd swept through.
“Are we going to be able to breathe long in here?” Someone whispered. Manuel shown his light up into the corner of the ceiling of the freezer.
“There’s a fan vent there where the cold air used to blow through. We’ll have oxygen coming in from there. We’ll be fine,” he reassured. “How many of us have flashlights?” Jude, Manuel, James, and I all had flashlights on us.
“Good,” Jude said wearily. “We’ll turn on one for a few minute periodically.” A boom from outside of the freezer rattled the door. The zombies were in the storage room. They began banging on the freezer.
We were in for a very long day and night.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, WE WERE all sitting on the floor and listening to the constant sounds of the undead right outside of the freezer door. I felt like I was about to lose my shit in the dank, dark room, shut up with nineteen other filthy survivors and hoping the zombie wave would go through our area soon.
“Man, I’d give anything to be in my old man’s beach front condo right about now. Zombies or no, I’d sure like to hit some waves.” A young man from Nina’s group had spoken and the entire room groaned in agreement. “What about you guys?” he asked.
“Alaska. Might be cold, but that could mean fewer zombies,” Nina answered hesitantly.
“A deserted island. No zombies. Just me and wide open beaches, pineapples, and coconuts.” Someone else chimed in.
“Piña coladas,” someone agreed with a laugh. Laughter floated through the room. I smiled at that. A frozen beverage full of pineapple and coconut? Sounded like heaven to me.
“My Grandmother’s house,” a young girl said softly. We all sobered up. “She made the best banana nut bread and pot roast.” I smiled into the darkness. The small things we took for granted from before would mean so much more to us now. Retrospect was a bitch.
“A fully functioning, zombie free, Mexican restaurant,” I said into the silence. Everyone laughed. “Loaded tacos? Homemade, fresh salsa?” I added for extra emphasis. “Am I right?”
“Margaritas,” the same person who mentioned the piña coladas added in. Everyone laughed again.
Silence once again fell over the group and all that we could hear was the sounds of the zombies on the other side of the door, clawing and gnashing their teeth against the door as they tried to get in.
Several more hours later, Jude switched his flashlight on to check his watch. It was late—really late. Darkness should had already fallen and that meant we had to stay put and wait out the zombies. We were going to end up stuck in the freezer overnight and that prospect did not sound all that enticing to me. I scooted over next to him and laid my head on his shoulder. His muscles were tense. No matter what happened, he would feel responsible for this group. Even if he couldn’t have foreseen the other group attacking us, even if half the group weren’t our people to begin with. Now we had to get these people to safety. I understood that. I felt the same way. A few moments later, his body relaxed enough for me to wrap my arm around his and doze off on his shoulder.
I’m not sure how long I slept, but I woke to the faint pounding and groans of zombies close by.
“No change?” I whispered.
“They seem more sporadic now. Less enthusiastic,” he explained. I listened to the noises and I had to agree. They didn’t seem quite as insistent and frantic as they had before. This is good, I thought.
“What time is it?” I asked softly.
“It’s already two o’clock in the morning,” he answered quickly. Holy crap. I’d slept that long? I turned on my light and flashed it quickly around the room. Almost everyone was asleep.
“So, what do we do next, Jude?” He sighed and I knew he had to be exhausted. No telling how long it had been since he’d slept last.
“Once the sun is out, we make a run for it. No matter what … we can’t stay shut up in here forever. We have to get to the bus and pray that at least half of the zombies have moved on.” I squeezed his arm and then entwined my fingers with his.
“We have several hours then. Why don’t you try to rest?” He immediately stiffened next to me. “You won’t be any good to the group if you can’t shoot worth a damn because you’re dead on your feet. There’s no way you’ll oversleep,” I said gently. Jude’s shoulders slumped and his body relaxed for the first time since we’d entered the freezer. Pretty soon his head was in my lap and I was stroking his hair as he snored softly.
I’m not sure how much time passed, but the next thing I knew, Manuel was kicking my foot and whispering loudly. I jumped, which caused Jude to jerk off of my lap, his body immediately ready for any threat.
“Do you hear that?” Manuel whispered loudly. I strained my ears. Jude’s entire body was thrumming with adrenaline.
“What is it?” Nina asked from the back of the freezer. I switched on my flashlight and shone around the room. Everyone was wide awake and listening intently.
“I don’t hear anything,” I said into the silence. I flashed my light back around to Manuel’s smiling face.
“Exactly,” he answered. Silence. There wasn’t any banging or any gurgles. Just the sweet sound of nothing. Jude flashed his light down at his watch. It was almost six thirty in the morning. I grabbed onto his arm and gave it a squeeze. We had to move. No matter what happened, this was our best chance.
“Alright everyone, let’s get ourselves prepared to move,” he whispered into the room. We all stood, grabbing our weapons and our packs, getting ready for whatever lay on the other side of the door. Whatever it was, we were all going to face it together. Jude cleared his throat.
“I suspect that even if the wave of zombies has blown through and even if the area is pretty clear, there will be enough zombies left in the area to give us a fight to get to the bus. Don’t do anything stupid. No guns. Just knives. Get to the bus so we can get the hell out of here.” He paused. “Understand?” We
all answered the affirmative.
I gripped the handle of my knife in my hand and prepared for the worst case scenario, which would have been hordes of zombies just outside the doors, or even in the cafeteria area. Manuel unbolted the door and the room took a collective breath in anticipation. I adjust my grip and tightened my fist around the hilt of my blade. Manuel raised his hand and pushed the door. It didn’t budge. I glanced up at Jude. But his face was a mask of shock and “oh shit”. Manuel and Jude put their shoulders to the door and heaved with all of their might. The door came open slowly, pouring light into the room and our sensitive eyes from the ruined storage doorway. I stumbled through the doorway and came up right behind Manuel and Jude. They were just standing there.
“What is it?” Nina gasped in horror. The freezer emptied out and instead of running for the bus like we’d decided while in the freezer, we all stood there in slack-jawed awe and confusion.
Bodies were everywhere. The undead laid in heaps and I’d never seen so much rotten sludge in my life. It was everywhere, coating the entire room. I walked forward and glanced around the room, my head feeling dizzy and disoriented. What the hell was going on?
“Someone took them out?” The spikey-haired girl asked.
“Who would do that?
“Why would anyone do that and then just leave?
“What the hell happened to their bodies? They look mushier than normal.”
So many questions asked, but no one seemed to have any answers. I caught Jude’s gaze and the look on his face told me he was as land-blasted as the rest of us.
State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) Page 19